Future Students:

Program Description

Founded in the 1970's, the Honors Program at Francis Marion University has always provided the university’s most gifted and ambitious students with enhanced educational and social opportunities. In Fall, 2014,the Honors Program became FMU HONORS, offering a smaller population of committed students a reimagined curriculum and undergraduate experience.

Incoming Honors freshmen are encouraged to take University Life 100 courses created to introduce them to college life and to acquaint them with FMU Honors’ policies. They may also enroll in special one-hour symposia in Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Business Leadership at any point in their undergraduate career.

Most Honors courses are those which meet general education requirements (like Speech Communication 101, Business 150 or Political Science 101), but which employ different, more collaborative, interactive, and interdisciplinary methods, and which are limited to an enrollment of 15-18 students. In addition to these, FMU Honors offers interdisciplinary Special Topics courses available only to Honors students and still applicable toward General Education requirements (see “Courses”)

The culmination of your Honors journey is the Honors 397 Colloquium, a multi-disciplinary, upper-division seminar on a different topic each year, and the Honors 491 Independent Study Thesis, a semester-long research project on a topic of your choosing and overseen by your faculty mentor.

Along the way, Honors students are encouraged (and offered financial support) to study abroad at one of our exchange partner universities in Europe and Canada and/or to participate in the Washington Semester Internship program—all for Honors credit. Also available to select students is Honors 350/The Model UN, the highlight of which is an expenses-paid trip to New York city to participate in the national Model UN.

Many Honors courses incorporate field trips, dinners, and other special events, and each November, the program sponsors a four-day trip to New York, Washington DC or Philadelphia. Each spring, four members are chosen as Honors Ambassadors to spend a week in Europe recruiting exchange students at our partner universities, and all members of FMU Honors can take part in such social and service events as Play-&-Pizza nights, a Haunted Hayride, kickball games and puppy-washing at the Jayne Boswell Animal Shelter. Each year, a student is chosen to receive the HSA Award (attended by a cash award) and is commemorated on a plaque along with that year’s three Honors Student Advisory Council student officers.

Each August, the President of the University, Dr. Fred Carter, welcomes FMU Honors students at a reception at his home, and at the end of each semester, FMU Honors Director, Dr. Jon Tuttle, hosts students at his house for a cookout.